North Webster Police Chief Advocates For Family Insurance
Posted
Jackie Gorski-
NORTH WEBSTER – North Webster Town Council will look into getting family insurance for the town’s police department.
The topic came up when Chief Greg Church said the police department was still hiring officers.
Councilman David Waliczek asked Church if he thought about how the department can keep its officers. He also asked if Church had thought of bringing starting pay for officers up to where the county has it.
Church said there’s a few things when dealing with officers. When it comes to keeping officers, the department has them sign four-year contracts.
He said it’s always been the fight of small towns to keep officers.
He said one of the two big things in hiring, not in keeping officers, is the department doesn’t offer family insurance. Church said, as far as he knows, North Webster is the only police agency anywhere that doesn’t offer family insurance.
The other big issue in hiring was the department needs to stay competitive with pay.
Waliczek asked the Council if they thought the police department should be able to offer family insurance. He asked Church how long he wanted to train officers to have them leave for other agencies.
Church said as long as officers honor their four-year contract, he’s happy. However, getting people into the department is the issue. He said there was a time when the department not offering insurance was not a huge thing because there were so many applicants to chose from. But now that they’re the only agency in the area that doesn’t offer it, it’s an issue.
“I just think that’s something we need to get on board with and the pay has to stay competitive,” Church said.
Councilman Dan Thystrup asked how they would go about looking into it. Church said that might be something Clerk-Treasurer Betsy Luce might look into.
Luce suggested the Council and Church get together and figure out what they want and an insurance agent would have to be contacted.
As far as where the funds would come from, she said the Council is either is going to have to either create more revenue, which means raising taxes, or cut something. That’s something the Council needs to figure out.
Waliczek said it’s inevitable that it has to be cuts.
Luce said they were about to adopt the 2022 budget, so they might have to figure out how to deal with the money they have.
Waliczek asked how they would go about finding out how much the insurance would cost. Luce said she could get together with an insurance agent and Church could get together with his insurance agent. She also said there are different options for insurance.
Church said he doesn’t think people will have a problem with paying a percentage of their health insurance, as long as providing it is something that could happen.
In other business, the Council adopted its 2022 budget.
The total budget is $1,691,314.
The casino/riverboat fund is $15,000. The rainy day fund is $106,000. The general fund is $999,105. The local road and street fund is $46,309. The motor vehicle highway fund is $259,800. The continuing education fund is $5,000. The economic development income tax fund is $240,000. The cumulative capital development fund is $10,000.
In other business, Leann Hubbs said she owns an empty lot behind the car wash at Lake Lube Auto Repair on Main Street. She’s thinking of doing storage units there. It’s zoned residential and Hubbs is thinking of going to the county to get it rezoned to commercial. She said she came to the Council to be respectful and to see if there were any objections to her doing so. There were no objections.
In other business, Church recognized Sgt. Candace Smythe, who retired effective Sept. 1. Church said Smythe was with the police department for 26 years and was a very dedicated employee to the town and great to work with. He said he believed she was great for the town and people loved her.
“I don’t know what to say except she will be missed,” Church said. “We wish her well in retirement.”
